This invention relates generally to a client/server software solution for collecting, summarizing and storing individualized content information and allowing a user of the software to provide a directed response thereto, and, more particularly, for example, to a computerized electronic statement, bill presentment and payment system and a method of presenting bills electronically to a customer and initiating payments and other instructions by computer.
While several electronic bill presentment and payment systems have recently been developed, systems which collect and present bill information from individual billers have typically required that the user contact each biller that provides electronic bill presentment and payment services separately to set-up and use such services. These services have the disadvantage of requiring the user to contact each biller each time bill information is desired and of requiring the user to enter payment account information each time the service is configured. Moreover, the user has the additional difficulty in managing the information and deriving summary information from several related bills (for example, all the bills due for a given month) because the information is not collected in a single document. Since each biller may use different software and bill formats for presenting electronic bills, the user will have the problem of obtaining and managing several different software programs. There is also the additional difficulty of centrally managing personal assets and cash flow with respect to the user""s personal accounts bank and credit and tracking outstanding or paid bills. From the biller""s perspective, the biller also has problems in managing cash flow and accounts receivable with respect to customer payments.
More recently, electronic bill presentment and payment services have been provided by third party consolidators. Various billers format electronic bills according to a standard prescribed by the consolidator and send the information to the consolidator. A user connects to the consolidator to review the current bills and provide instructions for payment. The consolidator will typically process the payment instructions from the user on behalf of all of the billers.
In order for such systems to be useful, a wide variety of billers must agree to provide bills in the prescribed format to a single consolidator. In that way, a user would need to only connect with a single consolidator in order to review all or many of his bills and/or provide payment instructions. However, such systems have the problem that the user may not wish the third party consolidator to have access to all of the information contained in that user""s electronic bills. Additionally, in all likelihood, there will inevitably be several consolidators competing to sign up billers and users, each one having a sub-set of a user""s billers. In such a situation, it would not be efficient for the user to connect to the several consolidators needed to retrieve and pay all of his bills and manage his information in one program.
In any electronic bill presentment and payment system, it is generally difficult and expensive to collect the bill detail information and format it in a manner consistent with the consolidators. Furthermore, individual billers may have information to send to customers that does not fit in with a consolidator""s presentment format.
What is desired is an electronic statement, bill presentment and payment system and method that overcomes the limitations of the prior art. A system and method is desired which would permit electronic statement, bill presentment and payment services to be provided to a user by a wide variety of billers in which the user can centrally manage all of his electronic statements, bills, and in which no third party consolidator is used, and in which such services are provided in a secure manner assuring the user""s privacy.
In another aspect, the invention relates to an electronic payment system and method, and more particularly to such a system and method for processing payments from a checking account or other funding account using a payment certification string comprising funding account information of a customer, and validation information of a certifying authority.
Up to the present, processing of electronic payments from a customer to a biller has generally required the biller to participate in a global electronic transaction network and confirm that funding account information provided by the customer is correct. In the case of customer checking accounts, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transactions have been used to accommodate the electronic clearing of checks. In general, the processors of the ACH system have required the biller to maintain a signature card on file for a customer in order to accept electronic checks from that customer. Therefore, payment by electronic checks has only been used regularly where there is an established, continual relationship between a biller or other vendor and the customer or other purchaser.
As a result, electronic checks have not generally been used for Internet commerce where a purchase may be made on a onetime basis from a merchant. In fact, generally, the merchant will require payment at the time of purchase and the parties to the transaction may have had no previous contact.
What is desired is a system and method for processing electronic payment instructions of a customer to a biller, preferably using electronic checks, that overcomes the limitations of the prior art. A system and method is desired which would permit immediate processing of an ACH payment from a customer to an e-commerce vendor (biller) even when there is no established relationship between the customer and the biller, and no signature card of the customer on file with the biller.
Generally speaking, in accordance with the present invention, an electronic individualized content presentment and directed response system is provided. The system advantageously provides for a method of presenting electronic content individualized for a specific user from several content providers and allows that user to initiate directed instructions to each content provider responsive to the content. The system is constructed and arranged to assure a secure and private connection, and transfer of information directly between a content provider and an individual recipient.
In a preferred embodiment directed to an electronic statement, bill presentment and payment system, computer software allows a customer to view statements and bills from multiple billers and make payments to the billers using a personal computer, Web TV, personal digital assistant or the like connected to a digital electronic or global communications network. The software eliminates the need for both the customer and the biller to sign up with a consolidator, and allows the biller and the customer to interact directly.
The system of the invention comprises an end user electronic desktop application (the client) which communicates over, for example, the Internet with one or more server applications (each a server) associated with each content provider. While the detailed discussion of a preferred embodiment includes a description of the system and method being advantageously used for statement and bill presentment and payment services, other interactive and individualized communications between a user and a content provider are contemplated within the scope of the invention and will be separately described as appropriate.
A preferred embodiment of the method and system for electronic statement, bill presentment and payment may provide the following services among others:
Biller Account and Funding Account Maintenance
This includes enrollment with a biller for statement and bill presentment and payment as well as management of changes to the biller account information and/or funding account information.
Statement Notification
Notification may be provided to the customer that new bills or statements are available from a biller. This may be by an email from the biller or by an indication maintained at the client, such as a time or date trigger or pursuant to a pre-defined billing cycle.
Retrieval and Archival of Statement Data
In response to statement notifications sent from billers, or otherwise indicated at the client, such as on the billing cycle day, the client retrieves the statement summary and detail data from the biller and archives this data on the user""s computer.
Review Statements Account Activity/status
The client application provides a GUI (graphical user interface) from which the user can access a consolidated summary of bills, statements or other account activity from all billers. The summary and detail information may include various types of content retrieved from providers of individualized content such as statements, bills, notifications, invoices, bank/brokerage statements, other account statements, voting proxy requests, insurance policy proposals, loan proposals, magazine articles, and the like. The summary view may also include advertising provided from the content providers or other sources. Where several content providers include advertising and the like, the client may rotate each ad into a banner or other location on the GUI or otherwise display such ads. Furthermore, when the user requests and/or views detail information, the client may display that content provider""s ads.
Directed Response
From the summary screen, the user may view the detail information, or provide directed instruction back to the provider. For example, for statements and bills, the user may initiate payment instructions. The client also allows the user to track the status of account activity such as enrollment and payment requests.
Polling
The client may automatically check for new statement and bill summary and detail information as directed by the user, or, for example, at every billing cycle. Intelligent polling based on a billing cycle or the like will help to prevent overloading at the biller""s server which might otherwise be caused by too much electronic communications traffic.
Bill Payment
From the summary screen the user may send payment instructions to all billers, for example, for whom bills are due. The GUI will allow paying all current bills with a single mouse click. Additional payment options, such as payments of the minimum amount due, partial payments, pre-payments or automatically scheduled payments such as recurring payments are also available.
Account Receivable Update
Statement providers and billers may use information about pending payments and future scheduled payments to update their accounts receivable data.
Generally speaking, in accordance with another aspect of the invention, a payment process using a payment certification string comprising encrypted funding account information of a customer, and digital validation information of a certifying authority is provided. The system and process advantageously allows a user to pay for Internet commerce transactions via electronic check even if the vendor does not have a signature card for the user on file. Validation by the certifying authority can provide authorization for the payment.
In a preferred embodiment, a computerized method and system for processing electronic payment instructions of a customer to a biller includes a client application with customer profile information operable by a customer. The customer operates the client application and enters the particulars (i.e., account information) of his or her funding source to be used to make electronic payments. The client application generates unique funding account information from the entered information. The client application then generates a payment certification string including a validation indicating portion from the unique funding account information, and sets the validation indicating portion to invalid (since it has not been confirmed). Once the payment certification string is created, the client application can use it to extract the unique funding account information as needed.
The system and method also includes a validation server. The client application sends the extracted funding account information to the validation server over a secure electronic communication channel and the validation server confirms that the funding account information can be used to make an electronic payment from the source of funds. In a preferred embodiment, the validation server, by use of personal questions known only to the applicant, attempts to ensure that the funding account in fact belongs to the applicant. Once confirmed, the validation server generates a validation string specifically associated with the funding account information and sends the validation string to the client application. Alternatively, the client application is instructed by a secured communication from the validation server to create the certification string on the client and indicate that the funding account information is valid. In a preferred embodiment, the customer then designates a secure password to secure the payment certification string and the client application requires this password to be supplied prior to accessing any functions related to the payment certification string.
To use the system to transfer funds, the client application generates (in response to input from the customer) an electronic payment instruction authorizing payment to a biller or vendor from the validated source of funds. In the preferred embodiment, the customer, at the time of using the client application to make a payment, must enter their password to enable the client application to generate the payment instructions. This secures the system to ensure that only the owner of the funding account information is able to use the payment certification string to effectuate a transfer of funds.
The electronic payment instruction includes the funding account information extracted from said payment certification string if the validation indicating portion indicates that the funding account information is valid. Finally, the client application transmits the electronic payment instruction to the biller; and the biller processes the electronic payment instruction and receives payment from the said source of funds. The biller can thus rely on the validation of the certifying authority (for example, in lieu of a signature card on file) to process the electronic payment transaction.
Note, as a measure of security to the customer, it is preferable to delete all traces of the customer""s funding account information on the client application once the payment certification string is generated. In use, the funding account information is extracted from the payment certification string only when needed, and preferably only after entry of the unlocking password, and then only for transmission over a secure electronic communication channel.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic individualized content presentment and directed response system and method that allows for the collection and summary of individualized content from several unrelated content providers and does not require a third party consolidator.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved electronic individualized content presentment and directed response system and method capable of providing a secure connection between a content provider and a user for transferring individualized content and/or directed response information.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved electronic individualized content presentment and directed response system and method used for electronic statement, bill presentment and payment services that allows for the collection and summary of statements and bills from several unrelated billers and does not require a third party consolidator.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved electronic bill presentment and payment system capable of providing a secure connection between a biller and a customer for transferring statement, bill and/or payment instruction information.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a means for minimizing the costs associated with processing statements and bills by transmitting statements and bills and receiving payment instructions electronically.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide for customer desktop archiving of electronic documents including bills and bill detail information for review by the user or for use by an intelligent agent in analyzing such data.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a customer desktop data source for use by external software programs and intelligent agents.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to permit a user to enter funding account information only once and use it to pay several billers, and to allow use of multiple funding accounts with respect to any one biller, all while maintaining the privacy and security of the funding account by storing the information on the user""s computing platform.
Still yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a payment certification string including funding account information of a customer and validation information of a certifying authority while preventing unauthorized disclosure of the particulars of the customer""s funding source.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification and drawings.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the system embodying features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of components which are adapted to effect such steps, all as exemplified in the following detailed disclosure of such steps and system as hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.